[author]Story & photo Luis Feliu[/author]
Artist David Adams in front of a section of the Treasures of the Tweed mural depicting the vulnerable Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) native to the Tweed area.
Former longtime Tweed mayor Max Boyd wants Tweed Shire Council to adopt the ‘Treasures of the Tweed’ mural which has nearly reached its final length of 700 metres, making it possibly the longest mural in Australia.
The mural painting began three years ago and has been funded by the federal government and job agencies with council support.
Mr Boyd told council at its last community access meeting that the colourful mural on Commercial Road, painted by artist David Adams and numerous work-for-the-dole volunteers, had ‘already drawn much favourable attention’ to the town because of its use of the local flora and fauna as subjects.
The Tweed’s elder statesman said the mural’s flora and fauna should be retained as the Tweed’s ‘special hook’ rather than copying what other towns had already used as their special theme.
He urged council to fund a movie of the completed wall with the further help of local unemployed workers and suggested the images be copyrighted so funds generated from a documentary and posters could be used in turn to fund murals on other walls in the town and elsewhere in the shire.
‘We are fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful and environmentally significant places on Earth and highlighting in murals much of the living flora and fauna of the Tweed is one way of sharing some of those treasures with others. Who knows, they may become a lasting reminder of what we had in the year 2011,’ he said.
Mr Boyd, who served on council for over 40 years, suggested the title ‘Murwillumbah – the town that paints its treasures’ for the mural vision-cum-movie and urged councillors to visit the website www.flickr.com/groups/treasuresofthetweedmuralproject/ for a closer look at the images of the subjects used in the project.